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The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
| creator = | starring = | voices = | narrated = Lou Albano | director = Dan Riba | theme_music_composer = | opentheme = "Plumber Rap", | endtheme = "Do the Mario", | composer = | country = United States | language = English | network = First-run syndication | executive_producer = | producer = | editor = | company = | distributor = Viacom Enterprises Saban International (Internationally) | num_episodes = 52 | list_episodes = List of Mario television episodes | runtime = 20 minutes | first_aired = | last_aired = | followed_by = The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 | related = The Legend of Zelda }} The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! is a 1989 American television series, conceived by Andy Heyward, produced by DIC Enterprises and Saban Entertainment, and distributed by Viacom Enterprises in the United States, airing from September 4 to December 1, 1989. The series was based upon Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2, and was the first of three television series to be based upon the Mario video game series. Each episode consisted of live-action segments starring Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi alongside a special guest, either as themselves or a character for the segments. The remainder of the programme was dedicated to animated stories of Super Mario Bros., starring the voices of Albano and Wells in their respective roles alongside Jeannie Elias, John Stocker, and Harvey Atkin. For every Friday and the remaining episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, it was accompanied by animated serials of The Legend of Zelda, based on the video game of the same name, and starring the voices of Jonathan Potts, Cynthia Preston and Len Carlson, until the conclusion of the television series. After the television series's original run via first-run syndication, the series received re-runs until September 6, 1991, before The Family Channel picked up the series a few weeks later and continued airing it until August 26, 1994.The Intelligencer – September 23, 1991The Intelligencer – August 26, 1994 The show was later followed by The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. History Before the series was conceived, Andy Heyward, the then-CEO of DIC Enterprises, spent about a year trying to convince Nintendo to license the characters. In an interview with USA Today, Heyward said "The Mario Bros. is such a unique property we had to do it in a different way...We wanted to do a cartoon but also do a show that extended beyond the cartoon." In February 1989, it was announced that the show would premiere in September 1989. To promote the series, Lou Albano appeared on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in May 1989 with his beard shaven. When the series first aired, it was distributed by Viacom Enterprises and was marketed by MTV. In David Sheff's book Game Over, Bill White, the then-director of advertising and public relations for Nintendo, said that the purpose of the television series was to "boost awareness of the characters." Format Each episode of the programme consisted of two live action segments, one at the start and the other towards the end, dubbed Mario Bros. Plumbing, in which Lou Albano (a professional wrestler and manager at the time) and Danny Wells portrayed the roles of Mario and Luigi respectively in comedic story accompanied by a laughter track. These segments involved a celebrity guest star joining the pair, either as themselves or as a character connected to the segment's plot, who were often a popular television star or professional athlete (including WWE (then WWF) stars of the time) - such guests included Nedra Volz, Norman Fell, Donna Douglas, Eve Plumb, Vanna White, Lyle Alzado and Magic Johnson. Alongside guest stars, both Albano and Wells portrayed additional characters in a number of episodes related to Mario and Luigi - in one episode, Albano played as himself, but had to make the character of Mario absent for this to work - while in a number of episodes the pair were joined by Maurice LaMarche in the live-action role of the animated character Inspector Gadget, before his eventual role in voicing the character in Inspector Gadget's Last Case and Gadget & the Gadgetinis. In an interview for Shout! Factory's first DVD release of the show in 2006 - which did not include some episodes that involved Cassandra Peterson as Elvira, alongside Gadget's second appearance and a few other episodes - Albano stated that filming of the live-action segments involved mainly himself and Wells receiving a central plot and mostly improvising the dialogue as they went along. The rest of the episode in-between these live-action segments were dedicated to animated serials. For the majority of episodes, between Monday and Thursday, each episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! featured an animated serial of the Super Mario Bros., which both Albano and Wells voiced their respective characters. A total of 52 serials were aired under this schedule until 16 November 1989. For every subsequent Friday the animated segments consisted of serials of the The Legend of Zelda, with scenes featuring during the live-action segments on the preceding Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episodes during the week, and then broadcast as sneak peeks. A total of 13 serials were aired under this schedule, and following 16 November, were repeated for the remaining episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! until its eventual conclusion. Songs Each episode featured two main theme songs used during its broadcast: * "Plumber Rap" - Composed by Shuki Levy, arranged and conducted by J. A. C. Redford, the theme was performed by Albano and Wells - first to open up the show, and repeated again to open up the Super Mario Bros. animated segments. * "Do the Mario" - Performed by Albano in front of a greenscreen of the animated show's backgrounds, it acted as the closing theme for The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, and was composed around the classic "Overworld" theme from the Super Mario Bros. video game. During the remainder of the episodes, during the animated segments, a song taken from one of the notable singles from famous singers, songwriters, and musical artists of the era, would be used to accompany a scene of the serial. When the programme was re-released onto DVD in North America, these songs were replaced instrumentals of songs from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and one song from Super Mario World. Premise The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! The premise of the The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! focused upon Mario and Luigi being two Italian-American plumbers from Brooklyn. In the animated serials of Super Mario Bros., per the series' opening titles, the pair accidentally warped into the Mushroom Kingdom while working on a bathtub drain for a customer (as was re-iterated in the episode "Toddler Terrors of Time Travel" in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3). Upon their arrival, each episode begins with Mario reciting an entry into his "Plumber's Log" (a parody of the Captain's Log from Star Trek ) prior to both himself and Luigi helping out Princess Toadstool (Jeannie Elias) and Toad (John Stocker) in defeating King Koopa (Harvey Atkin) from taking over the Kingdom with a sinister plot. Each episode's plot featured characters and situations based upon the NES games Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2, as well as several sound effects and musical cues from both games. Some plots often involved parodies of movies or pop-culture of the time. Despite making use of the games, some episodes featured inconsistencies between the serials and the video games - one example was that the animated serials saw Mario receive his fire-powers from a Star power-up, when in the game the power-up grants temporary invincibility. Stories for the live-action segments of Mario Bros. Plumbing take place mainly before those of the animated serials. ''The Legend of Zelda'' The premise of the Legend of Zelda focused on the hero Link (Jonathan Potts) helping Princess Zelda (Cynthia Preston) to defend the kingdom of Hyrule from the evil wizard Ganon (Len Carlson), by preventing him from acquiring the Triforce through thwarting his schemes or those of his minions. Many elements of the serials were based upon the NES game The Legend of Zelda. It is one of few Zelda productions to feature the character of Link being able to fully talk - the others in the Zelda franchise being the CD-i games, the manga series, the comic series, and episodes of Captain N: The Game Master (the latter following the conclusion of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, and based upon the NES game Zelda II: The Adventure of Link) - with episodes often featuring the character using the sarcastic catchphrase "Well, excuse me, Princess!" (which later went on to become a popular meme) and a running gag involving Link failing to get Zelda to kiss him for his heroic deeds. Voice Cast ''Super Mario Bros.'' cast * Lou Albano as Mario (live-action and animated) * Danny Wells as Luigi (live-action and animated) * Jeannie Elias as Princess Toadstool/Princess Peach (animated segments) * John Stocker as Toad * Harvey Atkin as King Koopa/Bowser, Hooded Robin Additional voices * Robert Bockstael * Dorian Joe Clark * Robert Cowan * Diane Fabian * Paulina Gillis * Joyce Gordon * Marilyn Lightstone * Marla Lukofsky * Greg Morton * Steve Schirrinall * Greg Swanson * Ron Rubin * Keith Knight * Holly Gauthier-Frankel ''The Legend of Zelda'' Voice cast * Jonathan Potts as Link * Cyndy Preston as Princess Zelda * Len Carlson as Ganon * Colin Fox as King Harkinian * Allen Stewart-Coates as The Triforce of Power * Elizabeth Hanna as The Triforce of Wisdom * Paulina Gillis as Spryte Additional voices * Don Francks * Marvin Goldhar * Christopher Ward Guest stars * Lyle Alzado as himself * Craig Armstrong as Frankenstein's Monster * Vicki Bakken as the Queen * Kay Ballard as himself * Joe Bellan as himself * Harry Blackstone, Jr. as the Magician * Brian Bonsell as himself * Melanie Chartoff as herself * Philip L. Clarke as Computer voice * Patrick Dempsey as the Piranha Plant * Shabba Doo as himself * Vic Dunlop as himself * Elvira as herself * Nicole Eggert as herself * Paul Elder as Alligator Dundee * Kort Falkenberg as Santa Claus * Norman Fell as himself * Martin Gardner as himself * Larry Gelman as Sigmund Fruitcake and himself * Courtney Gibbs as herself * Joseph Griffo as Mini Mario * Karen Hartman as herself * David Horowitz as himself * Ernie Hudson as himself * Elaine Kagan as herself * Jim Lange as himself * Cyndi Lauper as herself and Cher * Maurice LaMarche as Inspector Gadget * Eugene Liebowitz as Dr. Frankenstein * Pam Matteson as herself * Danica McKellar as Patty * Ed Metzger as Einstein * Gary Owens as himself * Gary Schwartz as himself * Sgt. Slaughter as himself * Howard Stevens as himself * Fred Travalena as Elvis Presley * Arsenio Trioidad as himself * Nedra Volz as herself * James Ward as himself * Regina Williams as herself * Moon Zappa as herself Reception Upon the series premiere on September 1989, Mike Hughes of USA Today described the series as a "surprising disappointment", opening that the series has "little of the wit and spark" and relies too heavily on slapstick. In a retrospective review for the series' DVD, Mark Bozon of IGN referred the series as "the biggest offender among Nintendo's many embarrassing moments" but thought that the animated shorts were "interesting to look back on". Bozon gave the overall series a 7 out of 10 (while giving the DVD itself a 5 out of 10). However, Common Sense Media rated the show 1 out of 5 stars, stating that the "frenetic '80s cult fave with stereotypes hasn't aged well." Ratings Upon the first week of its premiere, the series had a cumulative 4.1/12 rating/share, making the series the highest rated first-run syndicated series at the time. However, within the next two weeks, the series (3.8/11) was beat out by Buena Vista Television's Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (4.5/11) and faced competition with Claster Television's Muppet Babies reruns. Home video releases From 1989 to 1990, Kids Klassics (with the sponsorship of Nesquik) released episodes of the series on VHS. Starting in 1991, Kids Klassics' parent company GoodTimes Entertainment continued releasing episodes on VHS up through 1993. 1989 Releases (Each volume begins and ends with a complete live-action segment, with the featured complete animated segment in the middle) * Mario's Magic Carpet * Mario Meets Koop-zilla * King Mario of Cramalot * The Great Gladiator Gig * Butch Mario & the Luigi Kid * The Great BMX Race * The Ringer (The Legend of Zelda) * Sing for the Unicorn (The Legend of Zelda) There were also 3 VHS tapes only available through a mail-in offer with Nestlé Quik. They follow the same format as the volumes listed above. * The Bird! The Bird! * Pirates of the Koopa * Kiss'N Tell (The Legend of Zelda) 1990 Releases (Each volume has 1 complete live action segment and 3 complete animated segments) * Koopa Claus (plus "Santa Claus Is Coming to Flatbush", "Stars in Their Eyes", and "Too Hot to Handle") * Count Koopula (plus "Vampire Until Ready", "Koopenstein", and "Robo Koopa") * The Missing Link [The Legend of Zelda] (plus "Captain Lou Is Missing", "Cold Spells", and "The Moblins Are Revolting") * Princess, I Shrunk The Mario Brothers (plus "Rowdy Roddy's Rotten Pipes", "Rollin' Down The River", and "Brooklyn Bound") 1991 Releases (The Kids Klassics logo is retained although these volumes were released by GoodTimes) (Each volume has 4 complete animated segments and no live-action segments) * Two Plumbers and a Baby (plus "On Her Majesty's Sewer Service", "The Great Gold Coin Rush", and "Flatbush Koopa") * Robo Koopa (plus "Bad Rap", "Karate Koopa", and "The Koopas Are Coming! "The Koopas Are Coming!") * Hooded Robin and His Mario Men (Plus "Plummers Academy", "Quest for Pizza", and "Escape from Koopatraz") 1993 Release (Released in a clamshell packaging, contains 6 complete animated sgements and no live-action segments) * Super Mario Bros. Super Show ("Jungle Fever", "Mario and the Beanstalk", "20,000 Koopas Under the Sea", "Mario of the Apes", "Mario of the Deep", and "King Mario of Cramalot") In 1994, Buena Vista Home Video under their DIC Toon-Time Video label released the VHS Super Mario Bros. Super Christmas Adventures!, which contained the animated segment "Koopa Klaus" and the live-action segment "Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush" alongside the Super Mario World episode "The Night Before Cave Christmas". In 2002, Lions Gate Home Entertainment released a DVD titled Mario's Greatest Movie Moments, which contained 6 episodes as well as two episodes of The Legend of Zelda. The VHS versions of the DVD, Mario's Monster Madness and Action Adventures, includes the same episodes (3 per tape, alongside 1 Zelda episode). None of those releases contained any live action segments. In 2004, Sterling Entertainment released Mario Mania on DVD which contained the first week's episodes, consisting of 4 Mario segments and a Legend of Zelda episode. This release however featured the live action segments and could also be watched on their own. A Question-and-answer with DIC CEO Andy Heyward was also included. Another DVD which consisted of 5 episodes: Mario's Movie Madness was released by Sterling in 2005, but lacked the live action segments. In 2006, Shout! Factory and Sony BMG Music Entertainment released the series on two 4-disc DVD sets. From 2007 to 2009, NCircle Entertainment released several DVD sets of the series. These two sets were discontinued in 2012 after Shout!'s deal with Cookie Jar Entertainment expired. NCircle re-released the complete sets in the same year with the same extras as the Shout! Factory sets, but with the live-action segments omitted and "On Her Majesty's Sewer Service" excluded. These releases have the DiC logo plastered with the Cooke Jar logo. In 2012, the show was added to Netflix as a part of their instant streaming library. UK Home Media history From 1991 to 1993, Abbey Home Entertainment Distribution released six videos of the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show" with the only animated segmented episodes, the animated segmented intro and the live-action segment of "Do the Mario" in the closing credits. Maximum Entertainment released a VHS in 2004 containing 3 episodes from the Second DVD release the company also released. Maximum Entertainment (Under license from Fox Kids Europe/Jetix Europe) released 3 DVD sets of the series from 2004-2005. The first 2 sets contained 6 episodes, while the third set contained 3 episodes. Maximum released another DVD in 2008 containing 6 episodes. Re-Runs ''Club Mario'' The first set of re-runs of the programme were aired during the 1990-1991 TV season, but with significant changes in the format. While it retained the programme's scheduling arrangement of broadcasts and the animated serials of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, the live-action segments of Albano and Wells were replaced on 10 September 1990 with a new continuity of live-action segments, entitled Club Mario. The format for these segments focused on a new set of characters - Mario-obsessed teenagers Tommy and Tammy Treehugger (played by Chris Coombs and Victoria Delaney respectively), and Cool MC (played by Michael Anthony Rawlins) - "commandeering" the "satellite signal" of the Super Show (despite the reality of the show going out on tapes to stations well in advance) and goofing around, while dealing with Cool MC's evil twin Eric (played by Rawlins) attempts to take over the show. The segment featured a one-to-two-minute viewing of Space Scout Theater/''Spaced Out Theater'' hosted by Princess Centauri (portrayed by Shanti Kahn), which was sourced and edited from the science fiction children television series Photon. Club Mario proved unpopular with viewers and was discontinued following this season. Further re-runs returned to the use of the Albano and Wells live-action segments. Cast * Chris Coombs as Tommy Treehugger * Michael Anthony Rawlins as Co-MC/Evil Eric * Kurt Weldon as Dr. Know-It-All * Victoria Delaney as Tammy Treehugger * Jeff Rose as The Big Kid * James Abbott as The Band * Shanti Kahn as Princess Centauri * Andy Heyward as himself ''Mario All Stars'' The second set of re-runs was created by The Family Channel in 1994 as a programming package entitled Mario All Stars, inspired by the video game title Super Mario All-Stars that was released the previous year. The format of the re-run focused on primarily the cartoons featured in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! alongside those from ''Super Mario World'' series; prior to being re-edited for this package, broadcaster aired re-runs of the programme at slower than normal speed and retained the use of the live-action segments before they were dropped to make way to the package's layout. The re-run was used again by the USA Network in 1997, from 8 January to 6 June, before the network replaced it with reruns of Sonic the Hedgehog. Although clips from [[The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3|the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoons]] were used in promos for the show, none of the show's episodes were featured. References External links * * Category:1989 American television series debuts Category:1989 American television series endings Category:1980s American animated television series Category:Animated series based on Mario Category:English-language television programs Category:First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Category:Television series based on Mario Category:American children's animated action television series Category:American children's animated adventure television series Category:American children's animated comedy television series Category:American children's animated fantasy television series Category:Animated television series about brothers Category:Television series by DIC Entertainment Category:Television series by CBS Television Studios Category:American animated television spin-offs Category:American television series with live action and animation Category:Works based on Nintendo video games Category:Luigi Category:Television series scored by Jerry Goldsmith Category:Television series scored by Henry Mancini Category:Television series scored by Laurence Rosenthal Category:Television series scored by William Ross Category:Television series scored by Alexander Courage Category:Television series scored by Shirley Walker Category:Television series scored by J. A. C. Redford Category:Television series scored by Don Davis (composer)